Toronto ranks highest in tech jobs growth in Canada, U.S.

Toronto has added the most technology jobs in the past five years and has the fourth-best tech talent market in Canada and the U.S., according to a new report released Tuesday.

The report by CBRE Group said Toronto added 82,100 technology-related jobs between 2012 and 2017 to beat out the San Francisco Bay Area for the spot by about 4,270 jobs.

The overall ranking of 50 cities by the commercial real estate services firm is based on 13 metrics including tech job growth, education levels, office rents, population trends, and housing costs.

Ottawa ranked 13th overall, followed by Montreal at 14th, while Vancouver came in at 25th.

In terms of tech jobs added over the five year period to 2017, Montreal added 22,300, while Vancouver added 16,100 and Ottawa added 9,700.

Toronto’s overall fourth-place ranking is two spots higher than last year’s. The city’s strong job growth also made it highest overall on a ratio of jobs created compared with number of tech degrees awarded per city.

Ottawa had the highest concentration of tech talent of any of the 50 markets at 11.2 per cent of all jobs, compared to 9.8 per cent for San Francisco and 8.9 per cent for Toronto.

Ottawa also ranked highest in momentum of talent pools because of a 15.2 per cent tech employment growth for a two-year stretch to the end of 2017, compared with a 10 per cent drop for the two prior years.

The lower loonie helped the four Canadian cities in the study rank as the four lowest wages relative to the average.

San Francisco ranked highest on average wages at more than US$125,000 a year, while Ottawa ranked as the highest Canadian city for wages at US$67,871